


Need for Company

by Bowandtie



Series: Man's best friend [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Makkachin's origin story, Origin of the babies and the mentor goes bald, Pre-Slash, That sounds like x-men apocalypse's plot, and a dash of angst, and origin(?) of Yakov's baldness, wait
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 00:27:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9409223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bowandtie/pseuds/Bowandtie
Summary: "I'm gonna love you lots and lots." He declares, feeling giddy from the warmth in his chest. "And you'll love me back as much." The puppy barks and snuggles closer, Victor fell in love even deeper.He brings her home.------





	

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit my tumblr, @ http://nomadshipper.tumblr.com I post once in a blue moon and then dissapears for the rest of my life cycle,

"I want a dog."

Yakov looks at the kid doing his lap, the only possible person to make such impulsive statement, looking as calm as ever without any indication that he just said the previous word. Yakov's senses trouble brewing and considers to pretend he didn't hear anything.

"I want a doooogg!" Alright, now he's whining while doing a perfect combination spin and making sure everyone in the vicinity heard. Well, Yakov still can pretend it's not addressed to him.

"Yakooovvv I. Want." A flawless triple lutz, "A." Followed by a double axel. " _Dog_!" Now he got the attention of everyone. And everyone now looks at Yakov expectantly. The kid's a total diva. Yakov hates his job sometimes, if not for the salary.

"Oh, you're talking to me." Yakov replies flatly. The kid raises an eyebrow and cocked his hips, clearly nonplussed at Yakov's sad attempt at deflection. "Where did that coming from?" Alright, stall him, change the subject, with a little luck, the kid's gonna forget all of this debacle by sundown.

The kid swished his silvery ponytail dramatically, wearing his one of his most infuriating smile. "Distracting me isn't gonna work this time." Damn, he's serious.

The older skaters starts to crowd at the rinkside, clearly enjoying the banter. Normally, Yakov's gonna yell at them to scram and not to butt in other people's problem. Especially if that someone is the Junior's rising star, pain in the ass extraordinarie Victor Nikiforov. Who's now hellbent on getting a fluffy companion, as in a living, breathing creature that needs dedication and commitment and probably Yakov's gonna take care of it for the majority of time. Victor Nikiforov who misplaced his bag four times a week, misses appointment every three days and leave a kettle on the stove and almost burn down Yakov's very nice house.

"Vitya." Yakov said with his most mentorly voice he could muster. Also with his biggest determination to mot throwing a skate at the pain in the ass's head. "Pets needs a lot of commitment and effort."

"I know!" He skates towards the rinkside with a big grin. "I'll take care of it! So please?"

"Vitya.." 

"Lisa have a beagle!" He points at one of the elder skaters accusingly. "Dmitry have TWO cats and a parrot!"

Yakov rubs his forehead, sensing the headache to come. "Lisa doesn't forget half of her daily tasks, Dmitry's brother lives with him to take care of the critters." His voice is quite calm for someone who tries to reason with a ridiculous fifteen year old. He's quite proud of himself, actually.

"Yakov." The kid makes a patronizing voice and Yakov can feel his blood pressure spikes. "Things i forgot are not the important stuff! I'm sure i can remember the important responsibilities of taking care another living being!"

"MY HOUSE ON FIRE IS THE NOT IMPORTANT STUFF, YOU BRAT? YOUR MISSING PASSPORT IS NOT 'IMPORTANT STUFF'?! MEETING SECRETARY OF SPORTS MINISTRY WASN'T IMPORTANT?!! COME BACK HERE YOU SH-"

\------

Due to some fantastical, miraculous circumstances, Yakov finally caves in and gave the shitty brat his permission. Somehow he also searching for potential litter for the kid. Lilia scoffed and called him a softie, Yakov for once didn't try to argue.

\-----

"I have someone with a litter french bulldog puppies if you want to adopt one." He says as he give the kid a paper with the breeder's contact number.

The kid looks at the number with no apparent interest. "Awww." Even his coos sounds absolutely fake. "That's cute... But i'd rather want a bigger dog, you know." Victor winks, god, a fifteen year old shouldn't be this annoying.

"Bigger."

"Big!"

"Have you consider one of those Japanese robot dogs or tamagotchi stuff?" _So that i can leave out dog sitting skill of my resume or worse, called at midnight to take care of some animal carcass from your house_ goes unsaid.

He gets a blinding smile in return that doesn't assuage his fear, at all.

"Besides." He continues with an impish grin. "I've seen enough of your face for a day here! I don't need to see more of it when i get home!"

 

Yakov replies with a strings of profanities, screamed loud enough to gather the entire building in one spot, within a safe distance, but close enough to watch. He noticed some kids pulls out their phone to record the unfurling chaos.

(He finds out the hard way several months later, that many of his students uses the voice clip of his screams at that day as alarm ringtone. He also finds out some insolent bastard uploaded the clip at international file sharing site with title 'old man screaming in Russian'. It was downloaded more than 5k times.)

 

\-----

A week after the bulldog debacle, Victor finds himself a litter of poodle puppies to adopt with the help of a rinkmate. Yakov had tried in vain to dissuade him, citing the shedding, intolerance to loneliness, and several other reasons that he certainly cites from extensive internet reading. While it's touching that he spent so much time to research, Victor is nothing but not determined.

He come to the breeder's house by himself, despite his rinkmate's insistence to accompany him. He's both nervous and excited as he knocks at the door, listening to muffled barks from behind the door. The breeder is an older woman with a slightly messy hair, looking pleasantly surprised by the lone kid standing at her porch with a carrier half his size on his hand.

There are five puppies inside, Victor is among the early picker, she said. The mother is in the far end of the room, watching her puppies resignedly. He pats her and sits down beside her on the floor, watching the puppies playing around excitedly. There is the shy one, the active one, the sleepy one, Victor is not very sure on which criteria to choose.

One of the puppies plods closer, her eyes glassy as she looks at Victor expectantly before nudges closer and rest her head on his lap, eyes still locked with him. She's soft and warm, and Victor is a firm believer of love at first sight.

"Hey sweetheart." He coos, putting his hand on her warm head. "You're choosing me, yes?" The puppy lets out a soft yip and licks his hand.

"I'm gonna love you lots and lots." He declares, feeling giddy from the warmth in his chest. "And you'll love me back as much." The puppy barks and snuggles closer, Victor fell in love even deeper.

He brings her home.

\-----

Victor picked the name 'Makkachin' randomly. "What does that even mean." Yakov asks with exasperated voice. Victor just smiles and skates away.

He brings her to the rink for the first weeks, after begging at the rink caretaker and made promises to keep her off the ice. He lets his rinkmates fawns and plays with her while Yakov drilled him with practices that requires all of his attention.

That doesn't last very long since The building management are jerks and make new rules about pets in the vicinity. Despite Makkachin being world's sweetest, most well behaved dog to ever exists. That being said, Victor had no choice but comply and arranges for a pet sitter for her.

\-----

"That's too bad." Victor hums at the other skater's consolation as they stretch. Georgi is a good guy, despite sometimes being weird, with his stiffly gelled hair and dangly skull keychains.

"Do you want a dog too, Georgi?" He remembers Georgi fawned the hardest when Makkachin was still allowed to be around. Maybe with the two of them, they can drive Yakov mad enough to overturn the stupid regulation.

"My father's allergic, so." He shrugs. "Anyway, if I get a pet, I'd have an owl, like Hedwig."

Victor doesn't know who Hedwig is but he doesn't ask.

\------

Makkachin grows triple her initial size in less than a year, Victor loves her even more. They go for a walk every morning, Victor goes to the rink and drops her at the petsitter's place, picks her as he goes home and they had dinner at nearby cafe. The owner likes dogs and always spared some cold cuts for Makkachin and free cookies for Victor. They cuddles after they get home, sometimes they explore the town at sundown.

When he had to go away for a competition, Victor's downstairs neighbor, an older couple, agreed to keep her at their house. At competition season, they often forgoes morning walk, Makkachin goes restless at night when it happens but generally stays her calm self. They bundled together on Victor's bed while snow falls until morning.

\-----

Years pass, and suddenly it's been more than a decade.

Victor tries not to think about the future.

\------

He is 27 and Victor still believes at love at the first sight.

\----

Victor goes back from Sochi prancing. He greets his neighbor twice as cheerful than usual as he picks up Makkachin. They looks at him weird but also amused.

He dumps the content of his luggage hastily, throws his newly acquired medal on the shelf and changes into his running gear in a haste. Makkachin sensing the imminent walk wags her tail and resorts to pouncing the front door, Victor happily obliges and open the door for her.

They run faster than they ever did for years.

Hour later and when his adrenaline has went down considerably, Victor drops at nearby bench near the pier, grinning ear to ear. Makkachin takes the adjacent seat and put her head on Victor's lap, he scratches her ear, still heaving and probably looks stupider than ever.

"I hope we'll meet again." He said to no one. "I hope you'll meet him too, Makkachin." Sensing her name being called, Makkachin looks up expectantly. "I hope you'll like him too." Makkachin barks in agreement.

\-----

Months pass and there's NO call. No contact from social media, and not even a mention or tag. Victor is at his wits end, fruitlessly stalking inactive accounts and barren tags between his practice. He even went further and checks Japanese forums with the help of random clicks and google translate.

Practice goes as usual, if not feels more suffocating. He starts to develop a new routine using first things flashed into his mind. There's skating, his job, his craft, his whole life that passed in a blur, leaving nothing but solid metals displayed at his shelf. He starts to skate and it feel as constricting as the thoughts of it and his mind takes a do over. And there's Yuuri, Yuuri who took him to spin around the marble floor, dipped him down and offers sweet, sweet hope.

(Then he leaves overnight, never looking back.)

Wow. Both scenario sucks.

\------

Worlds was held in Japan, and just as Victor fears, Yuuri is not even mentioned at the event attendance. Victor tries not to feel bitter.

He IS though.

\------

He goes home, probably in a pathetic state, since his neighbor resorts to pats his shoulder in consolation. Makkachin, the sweetest, most precious being on earth snuggles close and licks his hand and Victor feels slightly better.

As usual he dumps his clothes to the laundry bag, shove the new medal between the older ones and prepares to take Makkachin for a walk.

But then his phone dings.

Rather than dings, it's more fitting to say that it's ringing by the sheer amount of notification enters his feed.

His first thoughts includes: _Oh no, did Chris's sex tape got leaked_ , or, _Did Yakov finally got a stroke?_

Turns out it's neither.

Victor watches the shaky video in a daze. _It's Yuuri!_ His mind helpfully supplied. Makkachin climbs his leg and dozes off, blissfully unaware of Victor's internal turmoil. He watches the video again, and again. It's not exactly the perfect imitation, the jumps are mostly triple, there's difference there and here.

But the emotion, oh god the emotion. It's not even his personal bias talking. Yuuri's step sequence were mesmerizing, his spin exquisite, and the music coming out from his fingertips!

Wait. Why did this level of skater coming dead last on the last GPF?

Hm maybe the request wasn't just a drunken rambling after all. Maybe that's as much as a plea, just as Victor's program is one.

Victor jumps out the couch, startling Makkachin and almost trips in process.

"Makkachin." He hugs her, feeling the surge of familiar excitement like he's back on the dancefloor and being led by a beautiful, beautiful drunk.

"Let's go on an adventure!"

**Author's Note:**

> This dog fic is sponsored by the person who lost her dog in shitty year of 2016. 
> 
> My sister's friend saw me bawled my eyes out and thought i broke up with someone. My lockscreen is still my deceased darling's photo. And then this fucking anime made the MC blows his career because he lost his dog. I never feel such resonance with some anime character.
> 
> -french bulldog's face: my friend forgot the breed name 'french bulldog' in a conversation and uses "that dog whose face looks like that ugly politician." I feel so enlightened when i heard that.
> 
> -my parents also tried to get me a tamagochi instead of a dog, so that there's no corpse to take care of. Morrrbiidd.


End file.
